in written by nyonyo

irst, on my way to the concert, I was on the train from my town with my Arashi tote bag carrying my uchiwa and stuff. A mom and her middle-school-aged daughter sat next to me. After a few minutes, the mom asked, "Excuse me, are you going to see Arashi's concert?"

I said that I was. I asked if they were going too.

The daughter said, "No. We couldn't get tickets."

Then she burst into tears.

And cried ALL THE WAY TO THE STATION FOR THIRTY FULL MINUTES. OMG.

I was like, "...I have no idea what to even do with that."

Anyway. Got there early again this year. It began pouring as we came in...and just as soon, it stopped! Everyone looked up in amazement at the sky: you could see blue peeking through the clouds! The sun was shining through! COULD A MIRACLE HAPPEN?!?!?!?!?!?! A MIRACLE BROUGHT ON BY THE TERUTERUBOUZU MADE BY ARASHI FANS THERE THAT DAY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

No. It didn't, lol.

As soon as the con began, the skies opened up. I actually had brought my AAA poncho, but it turned out it was hard to move my arms in it, so I just opted to get rained on, optimistically hoping it would clear up again. By the time I realized that was really a dumb choice and I should have kept the poncho on, it was waaaay beyond too late. I got soaked to the skin. I've never been soaked like that EVER in rain. OMG. It was part of the fun, though.


OVERTURE
感謝カンゲキ雨嵐
Step and Go
Lucky Man


OVERTURE: as the music started, on the giant screen, up popped the first Arashi single cover. It moved on to show the covers of every single released throughout the years, in order, working our way up to Everything...

And then the opening tune of Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi began. Arashi appeared on the screen. I couldn't figure out where they were for real at all! And then finally I saw them on wires hanging above the main stage. *_* It was already raining like crazy, right away, but they flew over our heads waving down at us as we all yelled the, "ARASHI!" response.

They touched down by the torch platform and I think went into Step and Go from there. They did the short version of it without the rap as they came down to bottom. Then for Lucky Man they got on the moving stages and went around the stands on those.

Introductions during Lucky Man: Jun yelled at us not to lose to the rain. "７万人、みんな幸せにしてやるよ！" or something close to that. *w*

Nino did his usual irasshaimase, and then:

NINO: ARE YOU GUYS READY
AUDIENCE: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
NINO: ARE YOU GUYS WET
AUDIENCE: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
NINO: WELL WE'LL BE SURE TO MAKE YOU EVEN WETTER
AUDIENCE: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
AUDIENCE: ...
AUDIENCE: (Wait! DIRTY!)

Ohno's was normal. Aiba's was normal and he said at the end like last year, "This is the best!" sort of giggling to himself. Sho did his usual thing but closed at the very end with, "...naaaaaaaanttsutte~~~!" and did the Kamiyama pose.


We can make it!
風の向こうへ
Crazy Moon

They made their way back to the main stage eventually and moved onto the center one. They spread out over the catwalks from there. Jun came on our side and started out from the center taking a runner's starting pose, and then dashed down at top speed to the end, splashing through the puddles like crazy and sliding through the water. Then he almost fell flat on his face at the very end, and the fans all screamed, and he made this hilarious, "OH NOES!" face and posed.

We can make it! was shortened too with no rap.

All five joined back up at the center for Kaze no Mukou he. Sho called for everyone to clap their hands, super fun. The rap lyrics were flashed on the screen and a lot of people seemed to join in.

Crazy Moon was danced all five on the center stage. There the skies had totally opened up, the stage was one big puddle. Every dance step they took sent water flying everywhere. They went offstage after that, and...


PIKA☆NCHI (Aiba solo)
HORIZON
DANGAN-LINER
アレルギー
ココロチラリ
CARNIVAL NIGHT part 2


...Aiba sailed out of the main stage on a wire zip line, which dropped him on the center stage. I don't think everyone caught on to the fact that it was his solo until a while in, I was like, "Why is everyone else taking so long to come onstage??" and then realized. I can't lie, I did not dig it. XD; This song sounds really weak with only one person singing it solo, and Aiba's cute dancing style doesn't match the song for me.

Then everyone else returned to the stage, and we kicked it oldskool for a while! I had listened outside for a while on Friday but you couldn't hear much, and I was so sad when I could hear Kokoro Chirari. "Dammit! I wanted Allergy! If they're gonna go for the first album, why would they do Kokoro Chirari instead of Allergy?!"

SO IT WAS SO MUCH BETTER THAT THEY DID ALLERGY AND I JUST DIDN'T KNOW IT, BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T HEAR IT ON FRIDAY. BEST SURPRISE EVER. SO HAPPY. They broke out their veggie props, and on the big screen they played the oldskool footage matched up against the concert. Dangan Liner and Kokoro Chirari are also in my top four from the first album so I was basically as happy as a clam. But. ALLERGY <3333

CARNIVAL NIGHT was fab as always. I love watching the crowd go wild for it and dancing.

...hrm, I didn't say this until now, but actually we had arena seats on the hanamichi aisle. Though I don't remember which songs they were using the hanamichi for at all. But sometime in the first half of the show, Sho came down our way first very slowly, but turned around and faced the opposite side right when he came to our row. Then Aiba came down the opposite way, and did the exact same thing. No luck! But super closeup views of Aiba and Sho from the back: there are worse things in life.

Around here, Jun apparently had gotten sick of pushing his wet bangs out of his eyes so he pulled them back on top of his head with a hair tie, where they were sticking straight up. So cute.

Oh, and at some point when they were going around on the moving stages early on, Nino had yanked his jacket over his head with his arms still in it, trying to keep dry while looking absolutely ridiculous. <3


言葉より大切なもの (Nino solo)
Everything
瞳の中のGalaxy
アオゾラペダル
台風ジェネレーション

Nino came out and played electric guitar for Kotoba Yori mo Taisetsu na Mono. The arrangement for this was very nice, his playing was fantastic, his voice was good, but more than anything else, he looked so happy and like he was having a blast being there. The electric guitar arrangement was amazing. I loved this so much.

"Everything" was absolutely jaw-dropping in terms of the production, simple as it was. They put together a KILLER music video for the screens. I really can't explain it, and it sucks because though I heard there was DVD taping the second day, the screen stuff never translates to DVD well. :( But the video was timed to the second with the rhythm and very fast, showing streetlights flashing red and green depending on the lyrics, stunning cityscapes of Tokyo, and gorgeous silhouettes of people. Unbelievably cool with how great the timing was.

Hitomi no Naka no Galaxy was a first for me and I ended up tearing up for it. The screens had a backdrop of an eye illustration with stars inside it. Ohmiya were singing together with their arms around each other. Then when the cameras focused in on them, Nino slid up closer to him meaningfully, and the audience cheered them on as they moved their faces closer and closer together. Nino leaned in Time-style for the kiss, but stopped just short of the real thing, and they giggled together cutely as they moved apart. <3

Don't remember much about Aozora Pedal, I know the screens showed something cute but I can't remember for the life of me. I was thinking they said this song was special for Kokuritsu because it's outside, but this time the blue sky was nowhere to be seen. XD

Typhoon Generation: Nino changed the spoken intro and I totally missed whatever he said because I was reading the text on the screen with the proper text, instead of watching him. I'll look it up and edit this post later when I find out what it was. It must have been something sexy because it got a wild reaction from the crowd.

(edit: He said, "Ja, ittekuru..." like normal, then changed it to, "Oh, you've been waiting all this time in the rain just for me, haven't you?" and then winked!)